The mountain highs and down-home charms of East Tennessee’s gateway to the Smoky Mountains
The Sky Park attraction began in the 1950s as Gatlinburg’s original “sky lift.”
Every year, some 11 million visitors come to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which sprawls across more than half a million acres from the eastern edge of Tennessee into North Carolina.
On the Tennessee side, one of the best-known routes into the park is via Gatlinburg, a bustling little burgh about 40 miles southeast of Knoxville. Gatlinburg sits about as close to the Smoky Mountains as you can get.
Naturally, the mountains are a big draw. And Gatlinburg is surrounded by them. Look up from just about anywhere along the main parkway through town (about three and a half miles of gift and souvenir shops, things to do and places to eat) and you’ll see the splendor of the Smokies, aptly named because low-lying clouds often look like “smoke” among the summits.
A lot of people come to Gatlinburg to explore the park, hike, camp or river raft. But plenty of others prefer a more “pedestrian” way of experiencing the mountains—through three popular attractions that take you up, up and away, and plant you down on one of them.
Ober Mountain—until recently called Ober Gatlinburg—got its start as Tennessee’s first ski resort back in the ‘60s. These days it’s a theme park on Mount Harrison, and most notable for its cable cars, or aerial trams (above), which can hold upward of 100 passengers. On Ober’s topside, there’s a year-round ice-skating rink and ice bumper cars inside a mini mall; gift shops and snacks; a “Wildlife Encounter” rehab facility with rescued bears, otters, eagles, raccoons, wildcats and other native critters; a mountain slide and coaster; mountain biking; ziplining; rock climbing; skiing in the winter; and other things for all ages to do. There’s also a section of the tramway with a visual history of the iconic attraction, and a glimpse into the massive flywheels and gears of the mechanism that makes it all go.
But the thing that really sets Ober apart is the Sky Village Lift, a newly renovated chairlift that takes you on a steep scenic ride through the treetops to the tippy-top of Mount Harrison and an elevation of 3,455 feet above sea level, the highest you can go in Gatlinburg without hoofing it. There you can absorb the spectacular views from the observation deck, or—if your adrenaline pump is really pumping—take the Cloud Catcher zipline back down. It’s the highest zip in the Smokies, skimming the mountainside on a 3,000-foot, three-part course. And Ober is also a wedding venue, where you can top off your “I do’s” on Mount Harrison with a ride on the Cloud Catcher…and a plunge into married life!
In the middle the Gatlinburg parkway is the Skypark, with roots in the 1950s when a local innkeeper partnered with a Michigan ski entrepreneur to purchase a used lift from California ski country and reassemble it up the side of Crockett Mountain (named for the same family that spawned Davy Crockett, the famous Tennessee “King of the Wild Frontier”). For decades it was primarily just a sky lift, taking visitors on a nearly vertical climb up and back down. But when a raging wildfire destroyed it in 2016, it was completely rebuilt. Now there’s an expansive, multi-tiered observation deck at the top, with firepits, wooden lounge seats, a gift and snack shop and a bar—and America’s longest pedestrian “sky bridge,” a suspended walkway stretching nearly 700 feet across a mountain gorge to the other side. If you’re squeamish about hiking along a swaying, swinging track (with a section in the middle made of glass!), you can always stroll around the rim of the valley on a scenic pathway. Either way, you get the most impressive panoramic, birds-eye views of the Gatlinburg parkway, the people and traffic, some 500 feet below.
Today, the Sky Bridge is certainly Gatlinburg’s most unique tourist attraction. And the Skypark sometimes entertains visitors with shows by tightrope walkers from Rucksack Circus, an elite local “highlining” group, performing on a single line stretched across the ravine—yikes!
And then there’s the newest mountain attraction, Anakeesta, which opened in 2017. It’s a full-blown mountain village and adventure park experience with shops, restaurants, scenic paths, overlook viewing spots and live musical performances. Plus there’s a zip line, a “Treetop Skywalk” on woven rope bridges, a mountain coaster and a mountaintop observation tower that rises 60 feet above the ground, providing unobstructed, 360-degree views of everything all around. The sunsets from any vantage point in Anakeesta are awe-inspiring. There are also play zones for kids to climb and clamber, and special recurring events, like the United Tastes of America summer food event and Astra Lumina, a nighttime “enchanted walk” with music, dreamy lighting effects and “stars” that come tantalizing close to Earth.
A black bear, not uncommon to see in Gatlinburg, walks along a restaurant railing in Anakeesta.
Anakeesta—its name is a Native American word meaning “higher ground”—recently unveiled its latest attraction, the Crystal Express, replacing its former “traditional” chair lift with Gatlinburg’s only, high-speed, fully-encased gondolas (with glass bottoms and sides). It’s the best of both worlds: You get unobstructed views, and you’re out of the elements if it’s raining or snowing. It’s “clearly” the classiest (and glass-iest!) way to travel when you’re going up or down a mountain.
And like the saying goes, everything that goes up must come down. And when you come down from Ober, Skylift Park or Anakeesta, you can go a few miles into nearby Sevierville and visit the theme park bearing the name of Tennessee’s most down-home superstar.
Dolly Parton purchased a longtime theme park in 1986 and officially re-christened it Dollywood—inspired, she says, from seeing the Hollywood sign atop the hills in Los Angeles. Today Dollywood bears Dolly’s stamp in every way, from its live music to its food offerings and its “mountain” themed thrilled rides. It’s consistently ranked as one of the top theme parks not just in America, but also the world, with nearly 4 million visitors annually.
One of Dollywood’s newest offerings is “Behind the Seams,” an immersive exhibit celebrating Dolly’s wide fashion arc from country music to pop superstardom and the movies. There are wigs and rhinestone-festooned, custom-tailored gowns and dresses, with details provided by her costumers, stylists and creative directors. It’s as close to walking in Dolly’s shoes (there are some of those, too!) that most people will ever get.
Even without squeezing into Dolly’s wardrobe, you can certainly feel some of the “mountain magic” that inspired her, and her theme park just 15 miles from the place she was born and raised, on Locust Ridge in the community of Pittman Center. You can feel the same magic in Gatlinburg, where the local tourism department reminds everyone that “The mountains are calling.”
Up, down and all around, in Gatlinburg, yes indeed, the mountains are calling.
– Neil Pond